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POLITICO 44

“Michele, in years to come, she’ll be a strong candidate — but not now,” said Jerry Guerin, chairman of the Aiken County Tea Party.

Spartanburg Tea Party organizer Karen Martin gushed that Bachmann was “very generous, very passionate” woman who speaks for the people. Yet, after meeting her last month, Martin was unsure of her strength as a national candidate.

“If you could flip a switch and she could be seated in the presidential office, she would do a very good job,” she said. “I’m just not sure how to get from A to B. I’m not sure she’s a candidate that could win an election.”

The first-in-the-South primary, which is less than a year away, is key to winning the GOP nomination: Since 1980, the South Carolina GOP primary winner has clinched the party's presidential nomination.

And in many ways Bachmann — a grassroots favorite and founder of the Tea Party Caucus who is considering a run for the White House — has the potential to play well in the state.

Here, the tea party has deeply shaken this longtime Christian conservative stronghold and fiscal conservatives rule. Tea party-backed candidate, Nikki Haley, is governor and the midterm elections sent four freshman Republican lawmakers to congress.

"For a Minnesota girl, you are a GOP paradise,” Bachmann said herself last month in Columbia.

Kimberly Tatro, who will host a $100-a-person reception for Bachmann in April, said she was impressed by the lawmaker’s repeated allegation that President Obama hid $105 billion in his health care legislation.

“Michele Bachmann is a great American,” she said. “She’s a good representation of America and I think she has a strong voice. We need more American people to be like her.”

In the slow-starting 2012 contest, where few likely candidates have practiced South Carolina retail politics, time is on Bachmann’s side. She’ll make her second trip to South Carolina next month to speak at the reception at Tatro’s home, the Bluffton Tea Party and a nonpartisan voter registration event.

“She’s got to invest time here,” said veteran South Carolina political consultant Warren Tompkins. “She’s certainly not at the level of Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee. She’s in the back with everyone else. She’s going to have to get in there and mix it up with the rest of them.”

Though Tompkins, Mitt Romney’s South Carolina consultant in 2008, said he was skeptical of her staying power.

“Right now, she certainly is a big draw,” he said. “She captures a lot of people’s attention. How sustainable that’s going to be I really don’t know.”

At a recent meeting of the Aiken Republican Club, members shuddered at the mention of her recent Revolutionary War gaffe, in which she erroneously placed the battles of Lexington and Concord in New Hampshire instead of Massachusetts.

Then there’s the cardinal sin of working on Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign back when she was a Democrat.

“That doesn’t play well in South Carolina,” said a South Carolina-based Republican strategist. “People still remember him as that guy from Georgia.”

The strategist said most activists see Bachmann as “Sarah Palin light.”

“There’s this growing move towards finding someone that would represent the tea party and the fiscal reform wing of the party,” the Republican said. “A true believer. They’re looking for Jim DeMint. But DeMint has said he won’t run, so who’s next in line? Mike Pence? Michele Bachmann?”

LaDonna Ryggs, chairwoman for the Spartanburg County GOP, said Bachmann’s last visit energized establishment Republicans and “exceeded expectations.” But she admitted, “I don’t know if anyone changed their minds on who they’re considering.”

So SC thinks Michelle Bachman has a loud voice. It isn't how loudly you speak that is important, it is the importance of what you say. Remember the statement "walk softly but carry a big stick?" Michelle reminds me of Che's line from the musical Evita, she didn't say much but she said it loud. Fits her to a T/

If you are a conservative when you are young, you have no heart. If you are a liberal when you are old, you have no brain. No shame in being young and under-informed. She must have changed parties right after filing her first income tax return.

I am a South Carolina Tea Party activist, inspired by the grandfather of the Tea Party, Congressman Ron Paul. We await his return and participation in the upcoming Presidential debate in Greenville, South Carolina in May.

OF COURSE CONS NEVER PRODUCE A LINK... THIS PROBABLY CAME FROM ONE OF THEIR TRASH WEBSITES... SURVEYING THEIR OWN BRAIN DEAD PEOPLE... AND ITS SO TYPICAL OF A CON TO .... CHANGE THE SUBJECT WHEN CONFRONTED.

She'll never be ready. Coming from the red meat State of S.C. which is not known for it's intellect, one of the poorest States in the union with an inept school system is like a slapping this little teabag darling around a bit.

i just will never understand how conservatives can speak in such glowing terms of such an obvious twit. i'm sure she has a level of intelligence somewhere in that brain, for something (god know what). but what is clear is it is NOT history, it is NOT the constitution, and it is certainly NOT for elected office.